


Kings of the Clouds

by malacihte



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Carnival, Ferris Wheels, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Lance (Voltron), Sweet, but only a veryyy little bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 13:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9443699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malacihte/pseuds/malacihte
Summary: When you're stuck on a Ferris Wheel hidden feelings are bound to be confessed.AKALance and Keith try to finish every carnival game and ride but still manage to avoid talking about their feelings. Hunk takes matters into his own hands and stops the Ferris wheel.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Story takes place after Season 2 (Shiro's back at this point).
> 
> Confession: I'm more into Pining Keith than anything else but I wanted to broaden my horizons and try to write Pining Lance.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Lance thought Keith was pretty. 

He started noticing it in between arguments and battles. Keith just had really pretty eyes, and despite the mullet he had nice hair, and these sharp angles that reminded Lance of lightening flashes during storms. It didn't help that Keith was always doing cool things like piloting through asteroid belts and black holes. So Keith was attractive, Lance had come to terms with that but surely it didn't mean anything.

Lance definitely didn't stare at Keith during training, he totally didn't decide to sit beside Keith even if there were tons of empty seat he couldn't sat at, and of course he never talked about Keith being pretty to anyone. Except he did and Hunk had had enough of it. 

"Lance," Hunk said.

"Have you seen him Hunk? He thinks he's so good with his cool tricks and his muscles and the way he fights—"

"Lance," Hunk repeated.

"It's not fair! Why does he get to be so pretty? Not saying that I think about it a lot but seriously Hunk—"

"Lance!" Hunk practically shouts, successfully shutting up Lance.

Lance looks at Hunk who was sitting across from him on his bed, his arms were crossed as he sighed. Lance knew the look on Hunk's face, he'd seen it before whenever he'd tried to avoid the truth.

"Have you ever considered that you may have a crush on Keith?" Hunk asked.

"What?" Lance managed to choke out in his surprise that Hunk could ever suggest that.

"Well dude, you always talk about him," Hunk pointed out.

"Yeah about how infuriating he can be. He's a hothead and impulsive and—"

"Yeah I know Lance, but you also talk about how good looking he is and about the amazing things he does," Hunk explained.

"I—no, I don't, no," Lance stammered.

"Don't 'I—no, I don't, no' me, Lance, you don't hear yourself speaking, let me show you." Hunk started messing with his hair to resemble Lance's, "Oh Keith has such pretty eyes and he's just so awesome. He's got such a wicked smile, have you seen the way he laughs Hunk? I would totally kiss him if given the chance."

Lance stared at Hunk dumbfounded before bursting out, "I do not sound like that." 

"Yes you do," Hunk argued.

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"No I—"

"Lance," Hunk put a hand on his shoulder, "you like Keith a lot even if you're trying to hide it, it's obvious." 

So maybe he did, Lance realized. So maybe he did have a crush on Keith, it would explain a lot. The staring and the weird thoughts and the lengthy rants about him. Hunk was one of the smartest people Lance knew, he was the most observant too. If he thought that Lance had a crush on Keith it was probably true. Out of every alien and human alike it just had to be Keith. Somehow Lance wasn't too surprised by that, he had always had an attraction to the unattainable. 

Lance frowned, "Okay, say what if and this is all theoretical, I did have a crush on Keith. It wouldn't change anything. Keith doesn't like me, it would never work."

"He stares at you just as much as you stare at him, you're just too oblivious to notice," Hunk shrugged, "If you guys just, I don't know, talked. Maybe you'd both be able to act on your feelings."

"It's just," Lance trailed off.

"What? Are you too scared?" Hunk questioned, raising his eyebrows.

"No! I'm not scared," Lance protested, "Me and Keith, we're supposed to be rivals or whatever aren't we?"

"Not necessarily, just talk to him Lance it's not that hard," Hunk advised. 

Lance pulled at the hem of his shirt, Hunk might have a point. He could talk to Keith and then Keith could reciprocate his feelings, that was ideal. But what if Keith really didn't have the same feelings for Lance? What would happen then? They wouldn't be able to go back to normal. 

"Okay, I'll talk to him," Lance told Hunk. Although he said that, he wasn't sure. He needed more time to think about it. He wasn't even sure how deep his feelings for Keith even went. 

"Good," Hunk hummed, "don't overthink it Lance." 

"Me overthink things?" Lance let out a nervous laugh, "Unheard of." 

Hunk smiled before getting up from Lance's bed, "I'm gonna go see what Pidge is up too, see ya."

He walked through the door leaving Lance alone. Lance leaned onto the wall of his bed, closing his eyes. He was definitely about to overthink things.

-

It'd been two weeks since Lance's talk with Hunk and now he knew just how right Hunk had been. Lance had a crush on Keith and he knew it from the way his heart started beating a little bit faster when they spoke or the heat in his cheeks when they touched. 

It had also been two weeks since Hunk had told Lance to talk to Keith about it. Lance had yet to do so. He wasn't usually shy with his intentions but this was different. Partially because the conversation could have to potential to ruin all the progress they've made and also because it would be really awkward to admit it. So Lance kept his mouth shut, much to Hunk's disapproval. He just couldn't do it. 

Which meant he kept all his frustrated feelings bottled up inside of himself as he watched Keith listen to Allura's orders with his arms crossed and his bored expression plastered on his face. 

"We're stopping at a nearby space mall so Coran can get parts for the ship, the recent attack left some damages that will need to be fixed. You are to go with him to help find the parts, we'll be landing there in a tick," Allura explained their mission.

The last space mall they'd been to had been nothing less than chaotic. With Hunk being kept hostage as a cook, Pidge and him diving through fountains for money and then a memorable getaway via cow, Lance was pretty excited to go back. 

They landed without problem, all of them filed out of the ship following Coran. Allura staying to watch over the castle. Coran luckily hadn't made them pirate disguises again. When they reached the mall, something else caught Lance's attention, just beyond the mall, "A carnival? No way!" 

The alien carnival basically resembled Earth's own. With vast tents spanning across an open acre and different rides in between. The only difference being that the rides seemed a bit more extreme. The spinning teacups had turned into a spinning spaceship that were definitely going at a speed way to fast for any human to be able to withstand. Children were climbing up a wall trying to reach a certain point where their were prizes hanging but the walls were oozing with lava. Others were trying to hit a target with bullets from a sniper in order to dunk someone into a pool of weird, green goop. The bumper cars seemed to have the ability to fly. 

Despite the obvious dangers of this carnival Lance really wanted to go, "All in favour of going to the carnival say I."

There were echoes of I's coming from Hunk, Pidge and Keith. 

"I don't know Lance, it looks sort of sketchy. It's probably best to stay together," Shiro said, looking at the carnival playing out in front of them. 

"Come on Shiro, we'll be fine, don't you trust us?" Lance begged.

"Well," Shiro trailed off.

"I'll take care of them don't worry," Hunk assured.

"Please," Pidge pleaded, looking up at Shiro with puppy dog eyes.

Shiro sighed, "Coran what do you think?" 

Coran tugged at the end of his moustache, "This is one of biggest carnivals in the galaxy, people from all over come to participate in it. It could be a good way for all of you to learn about the culture of this planet. As long you promise not to get into trouble I think it'll be fine."

"We promise, right guys?" Lance looked to Hunk beside him who was nodding his head. 

"Here," Coran took a couple of bills out of his pocket and handed them to Lance, "you'll need money for tickets."

"Okay," Shiro agreed, "Coran and I will get the parts but I expect you all to be back here in about two hours, don't cause any trouble alright?" 

The group nodded in understanding, quickly thanked Shiro and Coran and practically ran to the carnival. Lance paid for the tickets at the booth and handed each of his friends their strip. 

They entered the carnival which was bustling with aliens. Families with young children, groups of teenagers, couples walking hand in hand. There were long lineups for rides and food stands. It reminded Lance of home, the laughter and the lights all bringing him back to carnivals he'd gone to with his family.

"Pidge, lets go do the flying bumper cars first," Hunk suggested. 

"Alright," Pidge agreed, already heading in the direction of the bumper car pen. 

"You and Keith'll be fine alone right?" Hunk asked Lance.

Lance knew what Hunk was trying to do, isolating him and Keith together so they'd be forced to talk. A clever plan, as always from Hunk. Lance wanted to say that he'd rather go join in with the bumper cars but knew he shouldn't let Hunk's setup go to waste. Before he could answer though, Keith spoke.

"Yeah, we'll be okay."

Lance turned to look at Keith who seemed completely unbothered. He'd have thought Keith wouldn't want to be alone with Lance as much as Lance didn't want to alone with him. Lance narrowed his eyes at Keith trying to see what he was getting at.

"Great, see you guys later," Hunk said before jogging after Pidge.

Aside from the dozens of people walking around them Lance and Keith were alone with each other. There was a second of eye contact when they both realized it before Lance shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and looked away.

"Oh, look at the carnival games over there. I wanna go do that," Lance proposed, in order to break the awkwardness.

"Okay," Keith said. 

They started weaving their way through crowd of people towards the line of carnival games. Lance observed the weird carnival snack foods held in the arms of aliens. There was drink that resembled a slushie but was steaming, creating a cloud of grey smoke above it and some form of cotton candy but instead of the usual colour of pink and blue it was a fluorescent purple that seemed to make the people eating it glow purple too.

"This reminds me of carnivals back on Earth," Lance confessed to Keith, "I used to go with my siblings."

"Oh," Keith said. His mediocre response kind of made Lance regret saying anything. After a of beat silence though, Keith added on, "I never really went to carnivals much."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I have some memories of going with my dad when I was younger but after he died I never went to one again. They weren't important for me," Keith explained.

Lance blinked once at Keith, realizing what he had to do, "Then we have to do everything at this carnival today. Every single thing Keith. To make up for every day you haven't spent at a carnival."

"Lance, you don't have to—"

"Nuh, uh, uh, no buts," Lance interrupted, he grabbed Keith's wrist and started running towards the games instead of the walking pace they were originally going at, "We're already running out of time if we want to do everything. Come on."

They stopped in front of all the games, one hand still wrapped around Keith's wrist, Lance used the other to tap his chin. He analyzed the games in front of him trying to pick what to do first. His eyes landed on the high striker. He immediately started towards it, pulling Keith with him. 

"A game to test our strength," Lance let go of Keith's wrist and cracked his knuckles, "Watch and learn Keith." 

He handed the six armed alien sitting on a stool by the game a ticket. Lance ran his finger through his hair trying to give off a nonchalance aura before he grabbed the red mallet and clutched it in his hands. With one hard blow to the lever the puck rose up the scale with flickering lights all the way to level eleven. Although a little disappointed that he hadn't hit the bell at the top he smirked at Keith nonetheless.

"Beat that," he challenged, holding the mallet out to him. 

Keith rolled his eyes but took the mallet. Lance watched as he gave up his own ticket before hitting the lever with he mallet. The puck went up, lighting up through the single digits. Then much to Lance's disappoint past eleven, stopping at thirteen. 

Keith put down the mallet and turned back to Lance, "Beaten."

Lance scowled at him, "I was just warming up okay? I would suggest a rematch but we've got too many games to play," Lance looked around at the other booths, "We'll settle this over darts."

Of course, Keith had to beat him at darts. To be fair Lance had been caught off guard when the first balloon he'd hit squirted a yellow pus at him. So he challenged him again at ring toss, Lance hadn't expected the rings to scream every time he threw them so he lost again. He forced Keith to go against him in the fishing pond but every time Lance caught something it bit him, a loser once again but now with bite marks on his hands. They sped through whack-a-mole, plate break, ladder climb, knock over the glass bottles and water guns before Lance finally won shooting gallery. It had been an easy win for Lance, the sharpshooter of the team.

Lance held out his star plushie to Keith, "I win, you lose," he taunted.

Keith already holding nine different plushies in his arms, including a one that looked a Yupper and and one that was supposed to be an Arusian, just grinned, "Yeah you did."

"Let's go to the house of mirrors," Lance suggested, now that they'd finished all the games. Keith nodded and followed him. They entered the maze of mirrors only to find that instead of the mirrors changing your appearance your actual physical form did. One moment they were stretched out and the next they were short and stout all the while the mirrors reflected their normal selves. They left the house laughing, from there they completed the bumper cars and the spinning spaceships in which they had managed to keep their skin from slipping off even with the speed. 

After Keith dropped a few of his prizes onto the ground for other lucky alien kids to pick up both of them held one of the fluorescent people cotton candy in hand.

"It kinda tastes like grapes mixed with eggplants," Lance commented, taking another bite out of it despite the off-putting taste.

"Really? Mine's more like plums and raisins," Keith noted. They'd taken over and hour and a half to finish all the carnival games and almost all of the rides that didn't look life threatening. The bright afternoon had bled into an early evening, the sky slowly inking into a darker colour. Twinkling lights of the carnival had been turned on, colours of pinks and white illuminating the grounds. Lance and Keith headed towards the Ferris wheel looming over the carnival, their last ride. 

The lineup for the Ferris wheel was considerably short, since most people were leaving at this point. Pidge and Hunk waved from the line, gesturing for them to come over. Keith and Lance joined them at their spot. 

"I see you're embracing your Galra heritage Keith," Hunk giggled. Keith glared at him. Lance had almost forgotten that the cotton candy made you glow purple.

"This is the last ride, then we have to go meet Shiro and Coran," Pidge reminded everyone.

Lance almost didn't want to leave. Life as a paladin of Voltron was always hectic, there were battles and robeasts every other day. Today had been the most normal like ever since they'd flown into the wormhole that had taken them away from Earth. He'd genuinely had fun. 

They'd reached the front of the line and the attendant who resembled a cross between a snake and a turtle was admitting Hunk and Pidge to enter one of the carts. "Wait," Hunk put a hand on Pidge's shoulder to stop her, "Lance and Keith should go first."

Pidge shared a look with Hunk, then let her eyes flick over from Lance to Keith. She seemed to immediately figure out what was going on and took a step back, "Okay."

Hunk gave Lance an unapologetic smile, "Go on. We can't waste time." 

Lance didn't have time to say anything to Hunk before the attendant told them to hurry up and after Keith handed all their prizes to Hunk, they were both seated on the Ferris wheel. Lance pushed down the safety bar and leaned back into the cart. 

The Ferris wheel started revolving, slowly moving them upwards to the top. Lance watched his legs dangle off the seat as they went around once, he noticed his skin had stopped glowing purple. He waved at Hunk and Pidge as they went around the second time—Hunk hadn't waved back as his eyes seemed focused on the control lever of the Ferris wheel. The third time around the Ferris wheel stopped, Lance and Keith at the very top. Lance immediately looked down to find Hunk whose ear was being pulled by the attendant, so much for not getting in trouble, Lance thought. 

"We're stuck," Keith said.

"So it seems," Lance looked down onto the Fair below them. He could see the tops of the colourful tents and the shining lights that wrapped around the rides. The people who continued to walk looked like ants from how high up they were. He could see the space mall Coran and Shiro were at and their ship where Allura was still in, "Everything looks so beautiful from up here."

Keith joined him in looking over the edge, "You can almost see everything," he whispered.

"It's like we're, um, kings or something," Lance said, trying to find the right words.

"Kings of the clouds," Keith finished for him.

Lance laughed, "Yeah and everyone down there are our subjects that we watch over and protect together." He started rocking their cart back and forth causing them to swing and the cart to creak, "Kings of the clouds," he shouted into the air and the faint stars that were starting to reveal themselves.

Keith started pushing the cart back and forth too, both of them howling with laughter until Lance's legs started to hurt and the cart slowly started to swing back into place. Breathless from laughing Lance looked at Keith who stared back at him. In the gleaming lights of the carnival, the sense of danger of being stuck up in the sky and seeing the smile on Keith's face, cheeks dusted red, his eyes staring right back and Lance's, all Lance wanted to do was kiss him.

He would've but Keith turned away, averting his eyes back onto the ground far below them. The mood changed a full 180 degrees. Lance felt his heart drop all the way off the Ferris wheel hurling to the ground.

"Up until today why were you avoiding me?" Keith asked, "I thought we were making progress, I thought we had each other's backs but then you made every effort not to talk to me. But today you just—why are you messing with my emotions what're you trying to do?"

Lance bit his lip, "I didn't realize you'd noticed."

"Of course I noticed," Keith snapped. 

Lance gripped the safety handle of the cart a little too hard, it was now or never, "I think you're really pretty."

"What?" Keith tearing his gaze from the ground to look up at Lance, anger evident in his eyes. "How does that have anything to do with the question I asked you?"

"Just hear me out okay?" Lance said, his heartbeat racking wildly in his chest. He took a deep breath, deciding that it was best to just get everything out all at once, "I think you're really pretty and you have nice eyes and hair despite the mullet and you always do super cool things because you're an amazing pilot and you're really good at fighting and even though you're impulsive you can be a good leader too and I stare at you a lot and sometimes I really want to hold your hand and hug you and just touch and you and a lot of the time I wanna kiss you and—" Lance stopped to breathe. Continuing on once he caught his breath, "I just really like you Keith. I didn't want to tell you because I thought you'd think I was weird or something. So I started avoiding you because I didn't know how to talk to you and usually I'm good at telling people how I feel but you're different and I don't know how to deal with that." 

"Oh," Keith said. Now it was Lance's turn to look away. This had been the reaction he'd expected, the sinking feeling swallowing him and the flames that Keith always left behind burning his skin. 

"Lance, look at me," Keith commanded. Lance didn't want to look at him, "Lance," he tried again, Lance continued to ignore Keith. Then he felt the palm of Keith's hand on his cheek forcing them to look at each other. "You're so stupid Lance," Keith breathed out.

Lance frowned, trying not to meet Keith's eyes, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm stupid too though. Shiro told me I should've just talked to you but I—I thought you hated me or something," Keith said.

Lance finally met Keith's gaze, "I don't hate you." 

Keith let out a short laugh, "Good to know," he paused before adding, "I like you too Lance."

It took Lance a moment to process his words, "You do?" 

"I'm not good with words the way you are and I can't really explain to you but I think you're so beautiful. I like the way you always see the good in everything and how you care about everyone so much. You're so good Lance," Keith smiled as Lance felt himself heat up, "Sometimes I think about holding your hands and hugging you and touching you and a lot of the time I think about kissing you." 

Lance felt like his entire body was frozen, he didn't know whether he was dreaming or whether Keith had actually said those words. Keith's palm still cupping his cheek was the only thing that reminded him that this was real.

"Can I kiss you?" Lance asked.

"Yes."

Lance didn't hesitate and dipped down to kiss Keith. It was clumsy and their noses bumped and somewhere in between they'd started laughing again. Lance put his hands on Keith's hips pulling him closer. He titled his head into the kiss but they both kept smiling before Lance could deepen it. 

The Ferris wheel started up again and they began their descent back down. Lance gave up on trying to kiss Keith, deciding they could practise later. He leaned his head into the crook of Keith's neck and kissed his collarbone. 

The twinkling lights of the carnival flashed beneath his eyelids and everything felt right.

**Author's Note:**

> The endddd.  
> I discovered that Carnivals are super fun to write,, writing pining lance was also different for me hopefully it worked out lmao. 
> 
> My voltron Tumblr is @malacihte if u ever wanna talk!
> 
> Please leave a kudo or comment if you've got any feedback or a compliment which would also be greatly appreciated.   
> Thank you so much for reading!!! ❤


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